Journal #1 Where did the world come from? Why is there evil? What happens after we die? How should we live?
Where did the world come from? I believe that long ago earth was a bare planet with nothing on it. After years, bacteria and allege started to form. After lots of time, it continued to grow into plants and eventually small insects. Those began to grow into bigger and bigger animals. Trees started forming and the animals thrived. Eventually monkeys and apes evolved and that is where humans came from.
Why is there evil? I believe there is evil because everyone is their own individual person with their own thoughts and choices. God designed people to have their own genetics and personality. Unfortunately that means that some people will be evil. This is sadly just a part of life.
What happens after we die? After we die everything goes black. It's like falling asleep but never waking up. When you fall asleep you don't know exactly when it happens, you just loose consciousness of everything. It is the same with dying. You just loose all feeling and everything goes black.
How should we live? I think people should live in harmony with each other, and the world around them. That means to take care of each other and the earth that we live on. That means you shouldn't destroy the environment or intentionally hurt others.
Journal #2
1. What really happens after you die?
If you have good karma you achieve moksha and are united with God. From there you confess your deepest sin with God and after that you are reunited with your family's souls where you can live peacefully for eternity.
2. Why is there evil or bad things/people in the world?
There is suffering in the world because God intended for everyone to be their own unique individual. Unfortunately, that comes with a cost of some being evil. Also, Karma is universal and God, no matter how powerful, cannot control it.
3. Why do we feel pain?
Aside from medical reasons, you need to feel pain to be able to understand emotions. Without pain, no one would be able to feel empathy for others. The world would become a cold and miserable place. We feel pain to be able to understand happiness and different emotions.
Journal #3 What was it like to be mindful? Why? Was it hard? Easy? Did you notice any particular thoughts to be repetitive? Be thoughtful and detailed.
For the past few days, I have been taking 5 minutes out of my day to sit down and focus on my thoughts. The first day was by far the hardest. I couldn't sit still for the full amount of time. My mind kept drifting to wondering when time was going to be up so I could get back to watching season 3 of Orange Is The New Black. It was by far not peaceful and was actually quite stressful for me to sit still without doing anything but breathing. The next day was still a challenge, but a little bit easier. I was able to sit still but my mind kept going to the same question: "When will the 5 minutes be over?" I was so relieved when my timer on my phone buzzed because that meant I could get up and do stuff. Sunday was about the same as Saturday. It was not as easy as I would hope for it to be, considering all of the days I practiced doing it. I was still pretty squirmy and wanted it to end. I'll admit it was nice though to take a few minutes out of my day and be calm. Looking back at it, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was at the time. From now on, if I have lots of stress I'll try to take 5 minutes to sit down and just think. I think this meditation was a great thing to try.
Journal #4
If I were the one who gave the 10 commandments to Moses I would have done it the exact way that God originally did it except I would change one rule. I would let my people worship any God they choose because it is not fair to restrict someone in that way. If someone looses faith in a God and finds it in someone else, as a human being, they should naturally have the right to do so if they please. Why would you want to force people to worship? If you did that they would not truly have good faith. Personally, I believe that allowing people to worship their own God should be their own choice.
Journal #5
Out of the 3 parables, I felt the strongest connection to the one of the Good Samaritan. It teaches you to be nice to people no matter what, even if it doesn't benefit you. This is something I feel can help me so much in life. Personally, something I want to work on is being nicer to people for no reason other than because it's the right thing to do. By using this parable, I feel i can become better at that. One example of a time this could have helped me is when I was at my sleep-away camp a couple years ago. My best friend Toby was making fun of my other friend Ethan. Since I was was better friends with Toby, I decided to join in and make fun of my other good friend. It was a horrible thing to do and I made my good friend feel terrible. Later that day i regretted it so much but i couldn't do anything because the damage was already done. I apologized but it hardly made him feel better. What I should have done was stop Toby from saying hurtful things to Ethan and not joined in. He was already hurt so me kicking him while he was down was just cruel and awful thing to do. By using the Good Samaritan parable, something like this will never happen again. Luckily, Ethan forgave us and all three of us are good friends today. I don't want something like this to happen because I could loose a really good friend next time
Where did the world come from? Why is there evil? What happens after we die? How should we live?
Where did the world come from? I believe that long ago earth was a bare planet with nothing on it. After years, bacteria and allege started to form. After lots of time, it continued to grow into plants and eventually small insects. Those began to grow into bigger and bigger animals. Trees started forming and the animals thrived. Eventually monkeys and apes evolved and that is where humans came from.
Why is there evil? I believe there is evil because everyone is their own individual person with their own thoughts and choices. God designed people to have their own genetics and personality. Unfortunately that means that some people will be evil. This is sadly just a part of life.
What happens after we die? After we die everything goes black. It's like falling asleep but never waking up. When you fall asleep you don't know exactly when it happens, you just loose consciousness of everything. It is the same with dying. You just loose all feeling and everything goes black.
How should we live? I think people should live in harmony with each other, and the world around them. That means to take care of each other and the earth that we live on. That means you shouldn't destroy the environment or intentionally hurt others.
Journal #2
1. What really happens after you die?
If you have good karma you achieve moksha and are united with God. From there you confess your deepest sin with God and after that you are reunited with your family's souls where you can live peacefully for eternity.
2. Why is there evil or bad things/people in the world?
There is suffering in the world because God intended for everyone to be their own unique individual. Unfortunately, that comes with a cost of some being evil. Also, Karma is universal and God, no matter how powerful, cannot control it.
3. Why do we feel pain?
Aside from medical reasons, you need to feel pain to be able to understand emotions. Without pain, no one would be able to feel empathy for others. The world would become a cold and miserable place. We feel pain to be able to understand happiness and different emotions.
Journal #3
What was it like to be mindful? Why? Was it hard? Easy? Did you notice any particular thoughts to be repetitive? Be thoughtful and detailed.
For the past few days, I have been taking 5 minutes out of my day to sit down and focus on my thoughts. The first day was by far the hardest. I couldn't sit still for the full amount of time. My mind kept drifting to wondering when time was going to be up so I could get back to watching season 3 of Orange Is The New Black. It was by far not peaceful and was actually quite stressful for me to sit still without doing anything but breathing. The next day was still a challenge, but a little bit easier. I was able to sit still but my mind kept going to the same question: "When will the 5 minutes be over?" I was so relieved when my timer on my phone buzzed because that meant I could get up and do stuff. Sunday was about the same as Saturday. It was not as easy as I would hope for it to be, considering all of the days I practiced doing it. I was still pretty squirmy and wanted it to end. I'll admit it was nice though to take a few minutes out of my day and be calm. Looking back at it, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was at the time. From now on, if I have lots of stress I'll try to take 5 minutes to sit down and just think. I think this meditation was a great thing to try.
Journal #4
If I were the one who gave the 10 commandments to Moses I would have done it the exact way that God originally did it except I would change one rule. I would let my people worship any God they choose because it is not fair to restrict someone in that way. If someone looses faith in a God and finds it in someone else, as a human being, they should naturally have the right to do so if they please. Why would you want to force people to worship? If you did that they would not truly have good faith. Personally, I believe that allowing people to worship their own God should be their own choice.
Journal #5
Out of the 3 parables, I felt the strongest connection to the one of the Good Samaritan. It teaches you to be nice to people no matter what, even if it doesn't benefit you. This is something I feel can help me so much in life. Personally, something I want to work on is being nicer to people for no reason other than because it's the right thing to do. By using this parable, I feel i can become better at that. One example of a time this could have helped me is when I was at my sleep-away camp a couple years ago. My best friend Toby was making fun of my other friend Ethan. Since I was was better friends with Toby, I decided to join in and make fun of my other good friend. It was a horrible thing to do and I made my good friend feel terrible. Later that day i regretted it so much but i couldn't do anything because the damage was already done. I apologized but it hardly made him feel better. What I should have done was stop Toby from saying hurtful things to Ethan and not joined in. He was already hurt so me kicking him while he was down was just cruel and awful thing to do. By using the Good Samaritan parable, something like this will never happen again. Luckily, Ethan forgave us and all three of us are good friends today. I don't want something like this to happen because I could loose a really good friend next time